Competitive selection of partner regions for DECIDE Project completed!

The Selection Committee, comprising relevant Deputy Ministers from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, the Ministry for Development of Communities and Territories of Ukraine, and DECIDE Project management team, has identified four new partner regions that will join the implementation of DECIDE Phase II in 2025–2030.

Over the previous month, the Selection Committee received applications from 13 regions: Vinnytsia, Volyn, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhia, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Sumy, Kyiv, Lviv, Zhytomyr, Rivne, and Chernivtsi.

More than 10 hours of interviews with regional teams once again confirmed the willingness of the regions — despite all circumstances — to implement sectoral reforms in education and develop local self-government.

We appreciate your continued support for the restoration and development of education in the regions and communities of Ukraine!

After a constructive discussion, the Selection Committee agreed on four NEW regions to be added to the list of partner regions for DECIDE Phase II.

The new DECIDE partner regions are:

• Sumy — Sumy Regional Military Administration;

• Zhytomyr — Zhytomyr Regional State Administration;

• Kyiv — Kyiv Regional State Administration;

• Lviv — Lviv Regional State Administration.

As previously reported, Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernihiv, Odesa, and Luhansk regions have been DECIDE partner regions since 2020 and will continue to cooperate with us in the next phase.

Ahead is five-year period of cooperation for the development of education and local self-government.

In the framework of this partnership, DECIDE Project activities will be implemented in each region, including:

• support for the implementation of specialised secondary education reform (creation of a network of academic lyceums);

• support for the implementation of vocational education reform;

• development of cooperation between communities with a focus on the creation of academic lyceums, including a grant programme for laboratories and modernisation of infrastructure;

• support for the updating of regional development strategies with a focus on education;

• support for partner communities in the development of community and education development strategies;

• development of agglomerations with a focus on educational services;

• professional development programmes for community leaders, education administrators, local councillors and heads of educational institutions;

• introduction of local democracy tools through education;

• development of a career guidance system for children and adolescents and grant programmes for the creation of career guidance hubs;

• internships for young people in regional military administrations and local councils, leadership programmes;

• participation in grant programmes for community and school public budgeting;

• DECIDE Summer Clubs initiatives ‘We are at home – in Ukraine’;

• infrastructure grants for partner communities.

Note: the selection of project communities will begin in January in all nine partner regions!

A total of 40 partner communities will be selected to participate in the second phase!

We welcome the new DECIDE partner regions!

The DECIDE project is implemented by NGO DOCCU and PHZH International Projects in Education with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine.